The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Kachikwu, on Tuesday revealed that there are strong signs that the United States will soon continue the purchase of Nigeria’s crude oil, Leadership News reports.

He stated that although the country had been diversifying into the Asian market and other parts of the world, the federal government is currently in negotiation with the United States government on the possibility of recommencing the buying of crude oil from Nigeria. Kachikwu noted that the development is as a result of the President’s visit to the United States.

“Post the president’s visit, there have been overtures from them (US) to say they want to go back to buying very limited quantity of Nigerian oil, partly to support the market, and conversations are still ongoing with that”,  he said.

He added that there three US-based companies (Chevron, ExxonMobil and one other) in the country export their 40% share of Nigerian crude to their refineries, so it will be incorrect to say that there’s currently no infusion of Nigerian crude into the US.

“Let’s understand that about three of the major oil companies are US-based – so 40 per cent of their production goes into the US anyway, so when we keep saying zero infusion of Nigerian oil into the US, it’s not really true. They never really stopped because they take their own barrels of the share into their own refineries. What we are talking of is the NNPC portion of the crude which is about 60 or 55 %, depending on the share of others; that’s the element we are talking of whether they will continue to buy,” Kachikwu described.

US, which is currently the biggest oil producer in the world, had halted the buying of crude oil from Nigeria for a while due to the significant rise in its oil production.

According to White House Policy Council Director, Cecilia Munoz (photo), the country’s oil production had ramped up significantly by more than 50 % to above eight and a half million bpd thereby producing more than its imports.